The wait for more Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov is officially underway.
Heated Rivalry Season 2 is now in production, with Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie returning as the hockey rivals-turned-lovers whose secret relationship became one of the biggest queer TV stories of 2025. The new season is expected to premiere in spring 2027, with April currently being reported as the target month.
But there is a lot more coming than simply another chapter in Shane and Ilya’s romance.
Shane and Ilya are back
Williams and Storrie will reprise their roles as Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, with the second season moving the couple into a very different stage of their relationship.
Season 1 was built around secrecy, attraction, denial and the fear of what coming out could mean for two of professional hockey’s biggest stars. Season 2 will explore what happens when the central question is no longer whether Shane and Ilya love each other but whether they can actually make their relationship work.
Creator Jacob Tierney has described the new season as taking Shane and Ilya into “much more serious territory.” While there will still be flirting and sex, the story will move away from the secret hotel-room encounters that defined much of their early relationship.
The season will primarily draw from Rachel Reid’s The Long Game, the sixth book in the Game Changers series and the sequel to Heated Rivalry.
Tierney has said that the reason he wanted to begin with Heated Rivalry was ultimately to reach The Long Game, which allows the series to explore Shane and Ilya as an established couple rather than constantly returning to the question of whether they will be together.
A more mature Shane and Ilya
Don’t expect Season 2 simply to recreate the tension of the first season.
According to Tierney, the new episodes will deal with the realities of being in a relationship after years of secrecy. Shane and Ilya may finally know what they mean to each other, but that does not magically solve their problems.
Communication, careers, public pressure and the question of how and when to live openly will become increasingly important.
Tierney has even compared The Long Game to “Sex Scenes From a Marriage”, highlighting the difference between the rush of a secret romance and the much more complicated reality of maintaining a long-term relationship.
And yes, there will still be plenty of chemistry between the two.
Troy and Harris are coming to the screen
One of the biggest additions to Season 2 will be another queer hockey romance.
Charlie Gillespie has been cast as Troy Barrett, while Justice Smith will play Harris Drover. The pair’s story comes from Rachel Reid’s Role Model, the fifth book in the Game Changers series.
Troy is a professional hockey player joining the Ottawa Centaurs, while Harris works as the team’s social media manager. Their relationship will bring another storyline about masculinity, sexuality and the pressures surrounding professional hockey into the series.
Tierney has also indicated that the show will go deeper into Troy’s emotional damage rather than treating the couple as a simple grumpy-meets-sunshine romance.
More new characters are joining
The Season 2 cast has expanded rapidly over the past few weeks.
Emily Hampshire will play Vanessa, Edvin Ryding will play Luca Haas, Robert Naylor will play Wyatt Hayes, Sabrina Jalees will play Farah Jalali and Priyanka will play Tarek.
More recently, Daniel Diemer joined the cast as Ryan Price, with Shaheen Jafargholi playing Fabian Salah. The pair’s characters come from Reid’s Tough Guy and are also connected to the events surrounding The Long Game.
According to reports, Ryan is a retired hockey enforcer who becomes involved with a summer hockey camp, while Fabian is his boyfriend and works in Toronto’s independent music scene.
That means Season 2 is expanding the Heated Rivalry universe considerably beyond Shane and Ilya.
The story will go beyond The Long Game
Although The Long Game is the main source material for Season 2, Tierney has confirmed that the series will also incorporate parts of Role Model.
This allows the series to bring several characters and storylines from Reid’s wider Game Changers universe into the television adaptation.
The result could be a season that feels much bigger than the first while still keeping Shane and Ilya at its centre.
Tierney has been clear on that point: no matter how much the world of the series expands, Shane and Ilya remain its heartbeat.
Ilya’s life is about to change
One of the major developments expected in Season 2 is Ilya’s move to the Ottawa Centaurs.
That change brings him physically closer to Shane and creates a completely different dynamic around their relationship. It also opens the door for several of the new characters joining the series.
The story is also expected to explore Ilya’s work surrounding mental health, including a foundation created in memory of his mother.
Filming has begun
This isn’t just a project in development anymore.
Production on Season 2 is underway, with filming taking place in Canada. Toronto and Montreal are among the reported filming locations.
The production’s start also prompted Tierney to ask fans not to visit filming locations or interfere with the cast and crew.
“Please give our cast and crew the space they need,” the creator said as production got underway.
When will Heated Rivalry Season 2 premiere?
The official announcement currently gives Season 2 a Spring 2027 premiere.
April 2027 is widely being reported as the expected target, although an exact premiere date has not yet been officially announced.
As with the first season, the series will be released on Crave in Canada and HBO Max in the United States.
For now, fans will have to wait.
But with production already underway, a returning Shane and Ilya, a new hockey romance, a rapidly expanding cast and a story moving into much more mature territory, Heated Rivalry Season 2 is shaping up to be considerably bigger and potentially even more emotionally intense than its predecessor.
Justice Smith — Criticologos / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 3.0. Emily Hampshire — Canadian Film Centre / Jesse Grant / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0. Daniel Diemer — Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0. Priyanka — Crisco 1492 / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0. Images combined and edited by Chronicle19
